After running a collegiate-best 5,000m of 15:11.13, the Stanford junior is poised for a national title run in Eugene next month.

On May 4 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, Stanford junior Aisling Cuffe ran 15:11.13 on her home track to finish sixth in the women’s 5,000m in a deep mixed field of seasoned professionals and top collegians. The mark, a 42-second personal best for Cuffe (whose first name is pronounced “Ash-ling”), easily eclipsed Lauren Fleshman’s 2003 school record of 15:20.44 and vaulted Cuffe ahead of Texas’s Marielle Hall to assume the top spot on the 2014 NCAA descending order list.

No stranger to big-time performances or to breaking records of established stars, Cuffe was a seven-time state champion and two-time Foot Locker cross country champion at Cornwall Central High School in New Windsor, New York.

At Stanford, Cuffe, 20, has excelled in both cross country and track. A two-time NCAA cross country All-American (21st in 2012 and fourth in 2013), she advanced to indoor nationals as a freshman in 2012 and finished 14th in the 3,000m while also running a leg on Stanford’s ninth-place DMR team. Last June Cuffe was somewhat disappointed with a 13th place 5,000m showing at outdoor nationals after redshirting the indoor season due to injury. But she has been a force on the track so far in 2014, finishing runner-up at 5,0000m to Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino at indoor nationals while also claiming seventh at 3,000m. Cuffe’s Payton Jordan run is not her only personal best this outdoor season, she also notched a new 1500m best of 4:19.60 at the Stanford Invitational in early April.

Running Times: I would expect you’re still feeling some excitement from your tremendous 5,000m performance at Payton Jordan. You must have known you were ready for a PR, but could you have imagined running 15:11?

Aisling Cuffe: Not really. Heading into the race I was hoping to run in the 15:30s and thought it would be a really good day if I could break into the 15:20s. So that’s kind of the picture I had in my head. But then also our coach [Chris Miltenberg] emphasizes not thinking about the results and just going with the process and wanting to race well. So I was more focused on racing well with the people in my race and staying tough, and I wasn’t thinking so much about the outcome.

RT: Were you aware of the speed of the race as you went along or were you blocking out time completely?

AC: Well, I was aware of the clock up until about the 3K but then lost track of it after that and had no clue what was going on. I was just running.

RT: Even though you were on your home track, did you feel nervous going up against such a deep, experienced field?

AC: I don’t normally get nervous before races, which I find odd sometimes. So it’s actually nice when I do feel myself getting somewhat nervous because it means that my body is trying to prepare for something big. And in that sense I was nervous going into the race but happy about that. It wasn’t so much about the people in the race but just that I was aware I had the potential to do something cool and I just had to be really tough and things would fall into place.

RT: How do you feel about your progression at Stanford? You stepped right in as a freshman and have been a significant contributor all along. Have you progressed about as you expected and have there been any rough patches along the way?

AC: Earlier on in college there was a bit of a rough patch when I wasn’t improving, and it would have been easy to start wondering what was going on. But for some reason I didn’t do that and just kept trying to get better every day, which I think helped a lot. The progression has not been consistent whatsoever. And I think that’s a cool thing about running, that you can have a race like this where you PR by a lot and it can follow a few years where you haven’t PR’d at all. So you have to enjoy the process and can’t worry too much wondering when the good days will come. You have to just go out there and enjoy every day, no matter what’s happening around you or what your results might be. If you are enjoying it, there’s no point in worrying about it.

RT: Have your training program and mileage evolved slowly or have you made significant changes in the structure of your training or in your volume at any point these three years?

AC: Not this year, but when Coach Miltenberg became our coach [in 2012] he definitely started to regulate our mileage more. Before it had been kind of inconsistent, but he’s kind of kept me on a steady progression of running 10 miles more per week each year and steadily building up. I never have a crazy high week or a really low week either, just really consistent blocks of training and that’s been nice to have. This whole year I’ve been mid-60s and all of last year I was mid-50s, so no drastic change really.

RT: Thinking ahead to nationals next month, would you prefer a steady, fast race?

AC: I don’t know. I like racing because it’s a different situation every time out and I don’t really have a preference. Championship races are a lot of fun because you can usually feel everyone waiting for the bell and there’s a build-up of excitement. But then there are the races where somebody takes off and goes out crazy and you get to reel her in the entire race. I like cross country because time is taken out of the equation entirely and it’s more pure racing—who can get to the finish line first and it’s just an arbitrary line in the grass. You have to get there first. I don’t know, there are all different types of races and I just look forward to the idea that you never know how a race is going to play out.

RT: With your big performance at Payton Jordan, you’ll certainly be one of the favorites in Eugene. Is your goal at this point to go for the win?

AC: I would love to win nationals and that’s what I’m training to do right now, to try to win. But also that was my goal even before last weekend, too. So it wasn’t so much about the fast time I just ran, because I’ve always wanted to win nationals. Each national meet is another chance to work on what you wanted to change from before. Obviously there will be great girls in the field —like Abbey [D’Agostino] and all of them—but it’s just going to be a lot of fun. I really can’t wait.